FSF Responds to LinuxWorld in Boston

Well it's always nice to have people come visit, and it's no different
when IDG's LinuxWorld comes to town. We had big smiles on our faces at
the FSF office recently, when journalists called to ask for our reaction
to the LinuxWorld announcement, that they were coming to Boston in part
because it was the birthplace and headquarters of the Free Software
Foundation---which launched the Open Source Movement?

Why? Why do we get this constant repackaging of what we stand for? And
always from organizations who by now should know better. Heaven knows
we've explained it often enough, haven't we? When was the last time you
heard the advocates of Open Source being asked to make a reference to
the fundamental ethical and political issues of Freedom in Software.
Never, because Open Source plays to the media interests that require a
sanitized version of what the real drivers were behind the birth of a
GNU/Linux world.

It seems that some words are hard to say, and some would have us give in
to their limiting Orwellian speak. Well tough, it's the Free Software
Movement; listen up, because you're in Freedom's home town.

Boston famously has a red brick trail mapped out across its streets,
called the Freedom Trail, linking many of the American Revolution's most
historic sites. No doubt many visitors to Boston's LinuxWorld will walk
this Freedom Trail at some point this week, and we invite them to pop in
and say hello, thereby creating an unofficial stop on Freedom's Trail.
This could also be a visitor's last chance to see what has been FSF's
home for the past 10 years. We receive many visitors each month, cameras
in hand, who want to see the reality behind the opening lines of the
GPL:

As of May 1, 2005 we will have a new home in Boston, and therefore new
opening text for the GPL. Interestingly, our new location is on the site
of the original Catholic Cathedral of Boston, and the building has a
chapel commemorating this.

We fully expect mail addressed to Saint IGNUcius at the Church of Emacs
to still find its way to us.